We will be selling leaf mulch during the first quarter of 2023! A lot of landscapers swear by this product—it looks beautiful on gardens, and it helps improve the quality of our local clay soil.
A leaf mulch is fast and simple to put on gardens because the material is light and easy to spread. Once it’s on the soil, it provides a beautiful dark color and the powerful benefits of an organic mulch. Not only does it help prevent weeds, retain moisture, and moderate soil temperature—the typical benefits of a mulch—but it also breaks down over the growing season to add nutrients to the soil below. This is a great way to have a beautiful garden, break up clay soil over time and, importantly, replenish the organic matter and nutrients that plants need to grow.
Loudoun Composting made a great leaf mulch, called Karbon Leaf Mulch, that became a go-to organic mulch throughout Northern Virginia. They got the leaves from Loudoun and Fairfax County leaf collection programs, ground it, and then brought it through a natural aging process. Sadly, the Loudoun Compost facility is closing.
We have traditionally composted the leaves that we get to help make our Grow Good Compost. Now, however, we’re receiving the leaves that used to go to Loudoun Composting (in addition to other counties) and started making leaf mulch. Leaf collection programs are one of the best sources for a leaf mulch because they don’t contain a lot of plastic bags or extra sticks and branches. (Our own backyards may be the best source that I know of for leaves, and I encourage people that have space to make their own leaf mulch!)
Professional landscapers and in-the-know gardeners have used leaf mulch for a long time. While they have been singing its praises, it can be hard to find leaf mulch around Manassas, VA. Indeed, there is so much land clearing debris across Northern Virginia that this wood source dominates the local mulch market. Mulch that is made from this wood source can lose its color in the heat of the summer, may take a long time to break down, and, if it contains treated wood, could introduce chemicals that are harmful to garden soil.
Leaf mulch is just that—leaves. When a leaf falls in the forest, it first protects the soil as mulch. Then, as it breaks down over time, it feeds the soil below. While a leaf would clog our street drains today, the underlying need for this natural process hasn’t changed—we need to protect and feed our garden’s soil. A leaf mulch is another local and sustainable way that people can return nature to nature.
About us
Freestate Farms makes premium landscaping products—compost, topsoil, and mulch—by recycling food and yard waste in Manassas, VA. Our composts, topsoil, and mulches are specially designed to increase the health and productivity of local soils, and with our focus on sustainable practices, this lets the environment and your garden grow good, together. We sell bulk compost, bagged compost, bulk natural mulches, bulk dyed mulches, bagged dyed mulches, and bulk topsoil.
